Lithium-ion batteries play a vital role in the development of many energy-dependent applications, such as electric vehicles, portable electronics, and renewable energy storage. However, with the wide adoption of lithium-ion batteries over the last two decades, technology limitations that impede more widespread implementation of lithium-ion batteries have become evident. Foremost concerns deal with insufficient energy storage, poor safety, high cost, and inadequate lifetime of lithium-ion batteries, with ancillary issues including poor low temperature performance and problematic recyclability. For example, carbon-based negative electrodes of many conventional lithium-ion batteries provide relatively modest lithium storage capacity depending on the form of carbon (hard vs. soft, graphitic vs. amorphous, etc.), represent a safety concern in situations of thermal runaway, and exhibit poor high energy density cycle life due to limited porosity (e.g., anode particles mechanically degrade because of insufficient expansion space). In addition, conventional lithium-ion batteries are expensive to manufacture due to high raw material costs and the expensive processing methods used to produce pure, dry materials. As a result of such deficiencies, many industries, such as the automotive industry, have been reluctant to adopt lithium-ion technology in applications under development (e.g., hybrid vehicle, plug-in hybrid vehicle, and electric vehicle platforms, where the cost per battery pack can run several thousand dollars).
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide an electrode having at least one of increased lithium capacity, improved electrical conductivity, greater stability, longer cycle life, and increased safety. In addition, it would be desirable if the electrode was cost-effective and easy to form on a current collector of an electrochemical cell.